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Tire-pressure system hits U.S.

Safer Corp. has announced that its Vigia Automatic Tire Pressure (ATP) system is now available in the U.S. The system can be installed on solid axles, allowing it to be used on trucks, buses and trailers. The Vigia system sends filtered air through a dedicated pipe distributed directly to each tire. According to Safer, since Vigia uses back pressure valves, any defect in a single tire will not affect

Nov 01, 2004

Safer Corp. has announced that its Vigia Automatic Tire Pressure (ATP) system is now available in the U.S. The system can be installed on solid axles, allowing it to be used on trucks, buses and trailers.

The Vigia system sends filtered air through a dedicated pipe distributed directly to each tire. According to Safer, since Vigia uses back pressure valves, any defect in a single tire will not affect other tires. Even if there is a blowout, only that tire is affected, said Safer, with all other tires staying at their calibrated pressure.

Because it employs an electronic valve, Vigia “shoots” the air at a much faster rate, 120 psi, versus “trickling” the air like mechanical valves, explained Safer. If the preset tire pressure in any tire drops by 3 psi from its calibrated level, air is immediately released to the tire. If the tire continues to lose air, Vigia will maintain the calibrated pressure until the driver can stop to have the tire repaired. The driver is kept aware of the entire process through an alert system in the control panel.

To deal with catastrophic air loss, Vigia is equipped with two safety valves that prevent the vehicle's air supply from ever falling below 70 psi. Should the air supply fall near 70 psi, noted Safer, Vigia discontinues taking air from the tank while the control panel flashes a red light to alert the driver “so a safe pullover can be accomplished.”